Episode 302 – Berzan 02 (1)
According to the setting, the cult’s hometown is very different from Earth. Would you say it is similar to a desert on Earth because the temperature is high and there is little water? If they had not had psychic powers, they would never have developed a civilization on this barren planet.
The environment of Berzan 02 is quite similar to the cult’s hometown. Endless red sand and rocks. A blue oasis that is rarely seen. These are common elements found in the home of the cult.
Just as our ancestors built an empire on the sand, their descendants built a huge city on the red earth.
A forest of buildings spread out over a vast desert. The light ivory-colored buildings reflected the light of the sand and turned red.
A day has passed since I arrived here with the help of a new minion.
On the day of infecting Knowledge Manager Charas, the information acquired from her and the ship was sent to PS-111.
What ship do you have to infiltrate to safely enter Berzan 02 without restrictions? How far has that ship come now?
While we spent two days on the battleship, they secretly boarded a large cargo ship moving toward the Aur system.
It was said that the boarding itself was not difficult because Aadhai, who could move the fastest among the group, carried PS-111 and No. 26.
Of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Because of the size of PS-111, it almost got caught on radar while boarding. The guy said that thanks to No. 26’s wit, he got through without getting caught.
Anyway, the trade ship they are on arrives today. Right now, I’m waiting for them in the port area with Charas.
“Im here.”
said Charas, sitting in the cockpit of his personal spaceship.
A large ship can be seen landing through the tempered glass on the front of the spacecraft. A rugged cargo ship with a gray color and a long rectangular shape. This is Star Union’s manpower supply ship that was robbed on the way to Aadhai’s hometown.
Berzan 02 is a slave exchange large enough to compete for supremacy in the cult empire. From a manpower supply standpoint, there is no place as easy to obtain cyborg materials as here.
They are hiding somewhere inside that huge ship.
When the ship’s door opened, the cyborgs got out. There was no sight of the loaded cargo being unloaded. When we return, unlike now, the ship will be loaded with refrigerated containers full of humans and various races.
“What should I do?”
“waiting.”
The cyborgs have all come down, but there are still many eyes around. I waited until there were no more eyes nearby.
‘This should be enough.’
After about three hours, the number of cultists and outsiders passing by decreased significantly.
“Get ready.”
At my command, she brought the spacecraft close to the side of the manpower supply ship, as I had already mentioned. As we got closer, the side door opened as if waiting.
Accordingly, the back door on this side also opened quickly. The moment the open doors faced each other, three familiar shadows appeared.
They quickly boarded Charas’ spaceship. Charas, having achieved his goal, quickly increased the speed of the spaceship and left the port.
[Zuzzuzuzu (All three worked hard)]
“There was an error of about 2 seconds, but it is within the acceptable range. “There is no big problem.”
「Hello little big baby!」
「Big adult」「Why」「Did you get smaller?」
The guys I met again after a few days were still the same.
Number 26, who had shrunk down to a small size, climbed on top of my head and Aadhai patted my shaggy fur with his paw.
“Then where are we going?”
Charas, who was piloting the spaceship, asks me.
She was not at all fazed even though there were four monsters aboard her spaceship. Because the reality was so unrealistic, everyone seemed to think it was a terrible nightmare.
At her question, I looked back at PS-111. The guy’s red-lensed eyes fluttered. It receives information from MPS-05, which is synchronized with itself.
“The ‘middle baby’ has secured a hiding place and is waiting. “You can go there.”
While I was waiting at the port, Heavenly Mother and MPS-05 went to look for a place for me to hide.
The duration of ‘Clever Underdog’ is 7 days. When the effect ends, my body becomes huge again.
‘It’s already been three days since I transformed.’
We cannot rule out the possibility that we will not be able to find 22nd place for the remaining four days. Even if we know the location of the communicator, if 22nd is not nearby, we have to search the entire planet.
I asked her to prepare a base in advance in case the search took a long time.
[Zuzuzuzzu Zuzuz (Guide to Charas)]
PS-111 heard me and crawled into the cockpit. Charas trembled as the human-faced spider, which was 7 meters long, excluding its tail, approached.
“You can go to the old Hover Bus Center on Glory Avenue.”
“…yes.”
The spaceship flew toward its destination, passing between numerous buildings.
As we continued to move, the buildings decorated in red began to decrease and the buildings that looked somewhat gloomy began to increase one by one.
‘I was wondering why they chose the Street of Glory…’
If it’s the Street of Glory, I know it too. It is a street located on the outskirts of the city we are in, and there is a large slave market nearby, so it is one of the places where many cults hang out.
However, the sight seen on the other side of the tempered glass was far from the glorious name.
‘It’s fallen.’
For some reason, the slave market that should have been visible by now was not visible. It was a ruined city itself, with buildings half buried in the sand.
Charas landed his spaceship in front of a large building that looked like a reclining equilateral triangle. The Mother of Heaven, taking the form of a prisoner, walked out from inside a building that appeared to be completely unmaintained.
[Zuzu zuzuzu zuzuzu zuzuzu (You managed to get a building like this)]
「Because it’s a ‘building like this’, isn’t it possible to get it cheaply?”
[Zuzu (haha)]
「The hover bus center was originally built for the slave market. hey. I heard that a large-scale market opened on another street along the way, and the street was destroyed and the center was closed as well.” It
was just as she said. On the way here, I didn’t see any ships or cults other than Charas’ spaceship.
「And the broker told me an interesting story.」
[Zuzuzu zuzu(Interesting story?)]
「I think it would be a good idea to come in and see for yourself.」
Amber eyes, which are darker than usual as they reflect red light, are crescent-shaped. bent to She answered my question with a smile and led us inside.
The inside of the Hover Bus Center looked like a typical haunted house. Parts of the wall were cracked, exposing the steel frame inside, and there was a lot of sand on the floor.
‘It’s still spacious.’
Although it is old, it is large enough to comfortably return to its adult form. However, the Mother of Heaven continued to go inside as if this was not the end.
‘stairs?’
It’s a center where hover buses gather, but why is it connected underground? As we followed her down, we were greeted by a large underground space and several unfinished tracks extending into various branches.
‘I understand why you asked me to see it for myself.’
It seems that this hover bus center was also intended to double as a subway facility.
“This was built while it was being built, so it wasn’t connected to other places. “I guess it’s because there was so much opposition.”
The cult’s home star is a desert-type planet full of sand. So I don’t really like building things in the ground.
Of course, as seen in the space fortress, if it is deemed necessary, something like a subway will be built, but this will not be the case in Berzan 02.
‘Besides, if you build something like this on a ruined street, no one will ride it.’
I looked around the under-construction subway station.
‘It actually worked out well.’
This is a place to use as a hideout. It is advantageous that the tracks do not extend to other cities or streets. If necessary, I can drill more.
“And there’s still more left.”
[Z(Huh?)]
“I’ll explain from here.”
“I am. explanation.”
As they came in, PS-111, which encountered MPS-05 again, came to the front.
As he operated the terminal in the corner, sparks flew from the ceiling of the underground common. A creaking mechanical sound was heard from beyond the cavity wall, and soon an image of a multi-meter-long sphere was output from an old camera mounted on the wall.
‘This is…Berzan 02, right?’
On the image of Berzan 02, colorful marks were floating sporadically.
“This is a map of the hover bus center scheduled to be installed in Berzan 02 and the surrounding slave market.”
「Considering the 22nd ranked race, there is a high possibility that they are disguised as slaves at the slave market.」 [
Zuzuzu zuzuzuzu zuzu zuzu zuzuzu zuzuzuzuzu (That means there is a person where this mark is)]
「 huh. I think it would be a good idea to start looking here.”
The 22nd ranked race is the Coldblood, who are persecuted in the empire. If you want to operate on this planet, where the largest branch of the Society of Prophets is located, it would be most effective to disguise yourself as a slave.
‘Not a bad start.’
I put my face close to the map of Berzan 02.
‘Even living creatures are sold at the slave market.’
Slave trading is the main focus, but in places as large as Berzan 02, rare creatures are often traded.
‘It’s not as good as Kesha Arma, but it’s pretty good.’
It would be nice to collect genetic essence while looking for the hiding guy.
–
White room.
There, a woman with flowing black hair is sitting on a chair.
Two beings were standing behind her as she sat with her head down. Their faces were covered in black fog, as if they were mosaics.
The faceless ones kept their heads close to the ears of the bowed woman and were whispering something. They were talking so persistently that even though their faces were not visible, I could feel their expressions.
A whisper fills the room. It could no longer be called a whisper. The woman did not move as if she could not hear the noise echoing in the room.
At some point, the woman raised her head.
Black eyes that looked exactly like black hair stared straight ahead.
said the woman.
「You ■■ ■■■.」
“Gasp!”
Sihyeon Eugene let out a rough breath and opened his eyes. Her face was reflected on the transparent glass wall of the biocapsule.
That face, with its sweat-soaked hair hanging down, looked very similar to the face of the woman I had just seen in my dream.
‘It’s that dream again.’
After being resurrected in the clone’s body, her dreams remained the same. It was a dream where the unidentified monster that killed ‘Sihyeon Eugene’ killed her again.
The nightmare that wouldn’t go away no matter what I did is now completely gone.
To be precise, since the day she acquired the artifact from Gallagon’s planet, she has stopped dreaming of being attacked by an unidentified monster.
Instead, her dream now is this.
It is a dream in which two beings whisper to her endlessly.
At first their voices were very sweet. Because it felt like I was guiding her wandering daughter to the right path.
But at some point she found the voice unpleasant. That they are manipulating her, not guiding her.
As soon as I started thinking about that, my sweet dream turned into a nightmare. Now she has become unable to sleep unless she enters a biocapsule like she does now.
“They said it was a mountain beyond the mountain.”
After briefly mocking herself, Sihyeon got up from the capsule.
When the glass wall opened, cool air enveloped her naked body. The cold air created by the air conditioner blew away the sweat that had formed on her body.
As she came out of the capsule, the lights slowly turned on, casting natural light into the room.
It was a room lit with soft light and exuding an elegant yet exotic atmosphere. The geometric patterns painted on the walls and ceiling were something that could not be seen in Megacorp’s facilities.
Even in such an alien space, Sihyeon walked out of the capsule as if nothing had happened.
The discomfort from the nightmare had subsided, but I didn’t feel like going back to sleep.
She picked up the gown and pad she had placed next to the capsule. As always, I decided to start my day earlier than others.
‘It will be difficult to supply more manpower than this. ‘You have to calculate quality as much as quantity…’
She spent her time concentrating on work while wearing a thin gown. It was the sound of a knock on the door that woke her up.
“Come in.”
A door with an old-fashioned design opened, and a creature that looked like a mixture of insect characteristics and a reptilian human base came in.
Coldblood is a race not commonly seen in Megacorp. The being, whose body was smaller than that of a regular Coldblood, wore a silver necklace around its neck.
“Did you cough? Sihyeon Eugene.”
“I guess it’s already time for the meeting.”
“yes. Minseok Eugene is waiting in the reception room on the first floor.”
“I’ll be there soon, so wait.” “I take care of my own clothes.”
“All right.”
Contrary to what he said, Coldblood came with Sihyeon’s clothes and offered them to her. Sihyeon frowned slightly but said nothing.
She knows why this Coldblood is doing this. The reason they treat it with utmost respect, as if they were treating a king, is because that being is a slave.
And here in Berzan 02, where she is, this scene can be witnessed very easily.
Sihyeon, who was fully dressed, opened her mouth just before leaving the room.
“Thank you always.”
Despite Sihyeon’s praise, Coldblood just lowered his head. She also wasn’t complimenting with the expectation of a response.
After the owner of the room left, Coldblood, who had been keeping his head down, quietly raised his head.
The back of her face is captured in the vertical pupils unique to reptiles. Only she can know what the owner of the eyes is thinking.
After looking at Sihyeon for a moment, Coldblood began cleaning the room as usual.